B2B Awards 44pp Brochure:12-22 B2BM Awards 07 44pp.qxd 29/10/08 17:15 Page 10
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Category 6:
Best use of email
Winner: Rackspace
Agency: Base One Campaign: ‘Old timer’s machine’
R
ackspace provides managed selected to receive a link by email. They
hosting and email solutions were the seeds from which the campaign
and has built its reputation would spread to a broader target
around a commitment to customer audience.
support, which it calls ‘Fanatical
support’. The firm assigns substantial Results
resources to creating and maintaining Within six months, 25,000 people
awareness of what amounts to a key across the world had generated
differentiator over its competitors. 162,866 page views, creating and
Thanks to ‘Fanatical support’, sharing images of themselves with
Rackspace enjoys a high customer colleagues, friends and associates.
retention rate, a fact it was keen to years, when they were still Rackspace The number swelled as a result of
communicate to the widest possible customers. Users uploaded an image of personal referrals, links from referral
audience of top-level hosting users. themselves, a colleague, or searched sites such as stumbleupon.com (12,766
Google for a famous or infamous stand in. visits), coolsiteoftheday.com (1730 visits)
Gets better with age The user, as makeover artist, could then and social networking sites. The website
The campaign message was simple: manipulate the picture using a series of was also located 964 times via Google.
once a Rackspace customer, defection tools to add grey hair, baldness, wrinkles Globally the concept has crossed
is unlikely as ‘Fanatical support’ goes and various accessories to mimic the cultural and linguistic borders. The
on forever. Humour and involvement effect of age. viral has been used in 112 countries
bring messages alive, so Rackspace The results were shared by users including the UK, US, Brazil, Canada,
felt that an interactive viral campaign using social community websites such as Sweden, Portugal, Australia, Ireland
involving humour would reach the MySpace and Facebook as well as by and Germany.
widest audience possible and direct forwarding the link by email. Even though this was not a business
people to the Rackspace website. It generation exercise, Rackspace
would be entertaining, memorable Spreading the news received the added bonus of an
and would encourage the users to Users of top-level hosting services such as estimated £48,000 in new business
involve friends and business associates. mission-critical websites and Internet attributable to clients accessing the
The resulting concept was the ‘Old applications have a sense of humour as Rackspace website from the viral.
timer’s machine’, much as anyone. A budget of £20,000 Over ten years such new business would
(www.theoldtimersmachine.com), an was allocated to cover the creation of the generate £361,000 of net present
online interactive program that showed viral and email fulfilment and 2000 value cash flow equating to an
visitors what they would look like in 20 Rackspace EMEA customers were ROI of 1700 per cent.
Runner up: Cushman & Wakefield
Agency: Concep Campaign: ‘Knowledge Center’
C
ushman & Wakefield is a privately-held the information in the ‘Knowledge Center’
commercial real estate service firm and on the campaign microsite is in
that wanted to reposition itself as a English, Cushman & Wakefield has
global thought leader as well as building 221 offices in 58 countries so emails were
stronger online relationships. translated into the local language.
This was to happen in the form of an The microsite was developed featuring
online resource called the ‘Knowledge examples of information that mirrored the
Center’. Two key audiences were identified: contents within the ‘Knowledge Center’.
journalists and existing customers, with The site was built to be as search-friendly
the company’s existing database of as possible, including linking, meta-tagging 119 new registrations each day – of which
current and potential clients also divided and keyword density. The email and three quarters opted-in to receive email
into three distinct categories: investors, microsite were designed to create a communication. In the two months
owners and occupiers. seamless brand journey from initial click- following the launch of the ‘Knowledge
Specific teaser campaigns were created through to final registration and subsequent Center’, there had been an 86 per cent
for each group, featuring tailored banner entry into the ‘Knowledge Center’. increase in documents downloaded. There
subject lines to persuade them to register. are currently 28,000 registered users.
Results Effective measurement and conversion
Global reach A total of 44,016 emails were sent tracking will enable Cushman & Wakefield
Nine campaigns ran across the Americas, globally. The campaign’s first month saw further to segment the audience for future
six in EMEA and one in Asia. Although 6701 visitors register – an average of targeted campaigns.
B2BM AWARDS 08 – www.b2bm.biz
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